1. Summary of the Invention
This invention pertains to portable, lightweight, compact, collapsible self-supporting stools which may be detachably mountable within a cabinet door or onto any mobile or immobile vertical, slanted or horizontal surface for convenient storability.
2. Description of the Background Art
From the time the first man stepped upon a rock to grasp something beyond his normal reach, to the present time, innumerable devices, step-stools, ladders, scaffolds and the like have been fashioned to allow a person to obtain access to objects out of range of one's normal stature. These include folding ladders, step-stools and combinations of step-stools with seats. Over a period of time, many of these devices have become very sophisticated, some with specifice uses in mind, and others with more general applications. In the case of this invention, there is a somewhat specific purpose for its use.
Throughout the world, there are many short people, particularly women and children, the women being the most consistent users of kitchens for food preparation therein. The typical American kitchen contains base cabinets that are approximately three feet high and two feet deep, with storage below, of course, and usually equipped with a plurality of doors and drawers. Above these base cabinets, mounted upon the wall beyond, are wall cabinets, which range in height from two and a half feet to three and a half feet, being mounted approximately sisteen to eighteen inches above the base cabinets. There are other heights of wall cabinets over stoves, refrigerators, pass-throughs and the like, to be sure, but these are the average wall cabinet heights, also depending upon whether or not they reach the full eight foot normal ceiling height or a seven foot soffit or dropped illuminated ceiling.
In any event, this places one or more intermediate shelves of the wall cabinets out of the reach of the average short person without the aid of some sort of stool or ladder. Not all kitchens have pantries or broom closets in which to store such a ladder or step-stool, and when they do, they are still usually unwieldly and usually obstruct access to whatever items are stored therein.
The present invention provides a rise of 91/2 to 10 inches and is designed to fold compactly to a depth of approximately 21/2 to 3 inches and is detachably mounted upon the inside surface of a base cabinet door so that when the door is closed, the stool is stored within the base cabinet without interfering with the contents within the cabinet. In order to use this step-stool, a person only has to open the cabinet door, swing down the folding step-stool, locking it in a stabilized position, which then provides the user with a self-supporting riser which is not dependent upon the cabinet door, its screws or hinges in order to support the weight of the user. In fact, the unique design of this invention and its integral mounting bracket allows the user to detachably mount the device so that it can be removed and used about the rest of the kitchen or other areas as an independent step-stool.
However, in its mounted configuration, as depicted in the drawings, depending upon whether the door is swung to a ninety degree relationship to the base cabinet or a one hundred eighty degree relationship, the stool can be made accessible to up to four adjacent wall cabinets without being removed from the cabinet door.